Would a Nursing Home Physician Specialty Resolve the Workforce Crisis in Long-Term Care?

Abstract

Letters15 September 2009Would a Nursing Home Physician Specialty Resolve the Workforce Crisis in Long-Term Care?Cheryl L. Phillips, MD, CMDCheryl L. Phillips, MD, CMDFrom On Lok Lifeways, San Francisco, CA 94109.Search for more papers by this authorAuthor, Article, and Disclosure Informationhttps://doi.org/10.7326/0003-4819-151-6-200909150-00010 SectionsAboutFull TextPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissions ShareFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail TO THE EDITOR:Katz and colleagues (1) present a provocative and appealing model to address the challenge of attracting committed and trained physicians into nursing home care. The barriers to such practice are already assumed. In a 2006 report, Katz and Karuza (2) noted that only 1 in 5 physicians who were identified as primary care physicians reported any involvement in nursing home care, and that those who were involved averaged only about 2 hours per week. Furthermore, the 2005 survey of the American Medical Directors Association (AMDA) (3), the national association of approximately 4000 nursing home medical directors, found ...